The Future of Headphone: Integrated DSP for Large Soundstage and Accurate Imaging.

Tyll Hertsens has written about his theory regarding HRTF being integrated into future headphones for a naturally sized soundstage and accurate imaging. Specifically with Apple leading the charge. There was also an interview with Paul Barton conducted by Jude form HF where he reveals that he is working on a flagship headphone, where he is trying to bring the soundstage "outside of the head", and that he believes there is a simpler way to do this. Though he phrases it as "teaching people" to do it?

I wonder how feasible this will be and how it could really drasticly change things. When we could expect this to start happening. The positives are obvious but I'm concerned about one aspect. If any of you have ever used any HRTF processing like Dolby Headphone, SBX PRO, CSS3D, Silent Cinema, or even just a real Crossfeed you'll notice that it also reduces fidelity. The sound becomes soft and the bass is loses it's impact, and EQing doesn't bring it back. I'm guessing the headphones just have more work to do.

Side note for anyone who needs to use Crossfeed, I recommend using a Stereo Width Expander. It does a basic Crossfeed but maintains fidelity, and adds a little reverb. Though they are not all created equally.

Redacted (EDIT: Poor choice of words on my part. Let's consider this realistically, what's even possible. Is it just a pipe dream. Thanks Marvey)

Links:
Tyll Hertsens Theory:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/conten...hones-and-describes-first#7Pylomm7dfByfy9a.97

Paul Barton Interview (About 2/3rds through):


Youtube Video demoing HRTF Processors (It'll work just using headphones):

 

the hp50 being one of favorite headphones for its price, I started to check on Paul Barton's new endeavours months ago... when I stumbled on the video you just posted. I think he mentionned that by the end of last year itself PSB was supposed to launch that flagship headphone (priced correctly as he emphasizes). But haven't heard anything on it yet.

I'm myself very much looking forward to what PSB can come up with... I thought initially that the akg flagship would be something on similar lines in terms of ambition... the N90Q measures the ear cavity to tailor the sound accordingly... sounds great on paper but the initial reviews on the N90Q are not that encouraging for me.

 

agreed but smyth realizer is... costly and for home use right?... the software, requires a PC.... no on the go solution yet if am correct.

 

How about we first agree on a standard:

1)how to measure headphones

2)what's a neutral AFR on headphones

 

Quite right, it was poor choice of words. I have a serious interest in this, and meant for a real discussion, even if the conclusion is that it is just vapourware. I tried to close the poll so the thread would be less frivolous, but couldn't see a way .

I have my doubts. I'm not sure I can see how it will work given everyones ear and canal shapes are different. I tried that superman app, it enhanced things somewhat width wise with he HD800, but the fidelity was quite poor. Apparently for it to work you have to use the same headphones they used to make it. The Sennheiser HD239: http://www.innerfidelity.com/conten...-headphone-tuning-program#HEhl9PA11R3Km4Tz.97

 

You mean you don't want someone posting the ossic x every month?

 

DTS/Dolby Headphone fail because nobody wants to license their stuff. Audio has never been a high priority or that much of a marketable thing to the average consumer so manufacturers aren't interested in paying the license fees for it.

VR places high priority on simulated binaural and room acoustics because the majority of games are first person. I haven't really heard anything that I would consider that good though. Most have the usual problem of being far too reverberant and sound unnatural. This should become a much higher priority for game developers and especially if the AAA studios start making large budget games for VR.

I'm interested to see how well the N90Q trunote works. It's used the in the JBL Everest Elite 700 or whatever it's called as well which I haven't had any interest in buying because bluetooth.

I know that Sennheiser added head tracking to one of their headphones at CES to demo their Ambeo 3D engine. I doubt anyone will really care about it but it might get licensed into other engines. They've also built a 3D microphone for 360° audio which requires some Sennheiser technology to make usable.

Smart headphones with head tracking are on the horizon once you can connect your headphones to your smartphone via USB/Lightning. That will allow data to be sent to and from the headphone and the smartphone does the DSP processing. Apple can easily implement this into their OS now they own Beats. I expect Beats will lead on this. This is a good thing because Apple and Beats know marketing.

The head tracking API and binaural DSP will likely be available to developers who can use that in their apps. A real fountain of creativity is possible there.

Once VR HMDs get to 4K the resolution for movies in VR should be pretty good. You've already got the head tracking built in the VR HMD. You'd just need an engine to handle the DTS:X/Atmos processing with head tracking. You can crossover headphones to a subwoofer as well and it should work with closed headphones as well as they provide no noise attenuation at very low frequencies. The other option is a Smyth Realizer A16.

Finding a way to accurately measure HRTF without sitting someone in a room would be great. I wondered whether you could create a 3D model of somebodies head with a smartphone camera and use that to calculate HRTF. You won't be able to do the ear canal though.

These are the most interesting things that have happened in the headphone space in a long time. The speaker world has stagnated and Atmos/DTS:X systems in the home are and will continue to be a small niche. It's too expensive for home consumers and requires too many speakers as well as the effort of mounting speakers to the ceiling. Atmos/DTS:X might become popular in the cinema world but also have a real chance of becoming popular in the headphone world as well where $200-$300 on a pair of headphones gets you something decent. If these technologies also require high fidelity audio then all the better because now headphone engineers must ensure their headphones are well designed and meet specifications.

Shame that all this cool stuff was never a priority in the audiophile world where everything stagnates into gimmicky DAC/Amp design and reselling "hi-rez" music that people already bought with the same quality (or lack thereof) mastering.

 

Whether it will be HRTF or something else, its just a matter of time until some sophisticated headphone DSP will sound better and more natural than "bitperfect". So far, we're at the pre-iPhone stage.

 

Dolby Headphone works excellent in a lot of games. It absolutely improves upon positioning versus just regular stereo. My only issue with it is it feels/sounds like it's creating a room in your headphones if that makes sense. SBX is a little better in this respect but the positioning especially for rear channels isn't nearly as good.

At any rate fidelity isn't as good as just plain old stereo but a dude with a mixamp and a pair of 598's is going to soundwhore infinitely better then a guy with HD 800s and whichever dac/amp you throw at it.

 

While our Out Of Your Head software currently requires a Windows or Mac computer, we have been working on a solution for iOS and Android devices. We are hoping to show a very early technology demo of Out Of Your Head running on an iOS device at the upcoming Newport show at our booth. But we will definitely have a mobile device solution.

We are also looking at doing a hardware DSP solution that could be integrated into a headphone, DAC or as a stand alone processor. But that's a long ways off. It's definitely possible but being a "one man" company, we don't have the resources to do serious DSP hardware development.

For those of you that don't know about Out Of Your Head, put your headphones on and head to:
http://fongaudio.com/demo to hear some recordings of the output from our Out Of Your Head software.

-Darin